South Gobi

From Khovsgol, we arrived in UB after lunch on Saturday afternoon. Dad and I had a lot of organising to do before we could leave again in the morning for my ‘work holiday’ with a bunch of my colleagues. We got home, chucked some loads of washing on, uploaded photos, started charging cameras etc and then high tailed it to the supermarket. We bought a weeks’ worth of camping food – UHT milk, butane gas canisters, pasta, pesto, nuts…..

We got home – pooped! We weren’t cranky, we were just ex-Xhausted!!! We decided on dinner downstairs at the French Bistro as it was the easiest thing to do. Mid-way through the meal, dad decided that he didn’t want to go on the camping trip. I’d been not-so-keen for a few days, but he wanted to go. So did I – I just knew it’d be a total struggle.

Anyway, so after all the organising, we totally piked. I called my work friend to ask if they’d care if we didn’t come. I felt totally terrible and so did Dad, but there was nothing we could do. We’d over booked ourselves and couldn’t handle any more camping. It would have been super-camping too. We were hiking every single day for 15-20km, in the rain (it was predicted to rain) – we’d have to unpack and pack all the time and eat pasta with shitty pesto for a week.

Best.Decision.Ever.

Sunday was our day of rest. Oh man, there’s NO way we could have made that camping trip. We were totally exhausted. I don’t really know why – we did bugger all at Khovsgol. Excuses aside, we just couldn’t make it.

Instead we sat at home, emailed, played with photos, rested, ate lunch and went and had a not-so-good massage South of the square. Dad got a haircut too. I grilled some Mongolian friends about where we could go (instead of going on the camping trip) and the Three Camel Lodge was suggested. I called early Monday morning, they told me to go to their office (in UB), we booked a 4 night, 5 day tour and then went to book our flights separately.

Flights booked albeit some minor problems, and we went shopping for souvenirs for everyone. We got some cool stuff. We had some lunch at a bakery and headed out to Naruntuul – dad wanted to see it. We were pretty tired but did a good job out there and had a fair look around. We got a little bit of material, dad got a new Chinggis Khan wallet and a few other bits and pieces. Nothing got stolen, no one got stabbed and all was well – no thanks to dad. He was apparently the ‘most vigil’ he has ever been, but he certainly knows how to play ‘vigil’ cool.

Below (clockwise from left): the outside section of Naruntuul {Black Markets} – used conveyor belt; inside at the markets at the meat section; some animal pelts; me out the front of the markets; the dairy section

Mexican/Indian for dinner – we were totally stuffed (our bellies, that is!). Came across some Kiwi’s who’s daughter is a hydrogeo and son is a driller in Taranaki (where my old work had a major energy play). They were dairy farmers too. Small world.

 

Tuesday morning we were busy packing and then checking out museums. The Mongolian Natural Museum is the next block up from my apartment. It costs 2500T to get in (about $2) and it was great! So many rocks! And amazing dinosaur bones. And lots of stuffed taxidermed animals.

I left dad at the National Museum while I went and sorted out our trip to Russia (Sarah and I). We had our itinerary to confirm. We went through everything again, organised prices and I paid a deposit. It took a lot longer than expected and was filled with interruptions by rude, rude, rude German men yelling at the travel agent. Nevermind. It all got organised and our visas/itineraries should be ready to pick up on the weekend.

I hurried home to pack my stuff in 20mins and we met our tour company downstairs for our transport to the airport.

And that’s when the fun begins.

We were first in line at the airport. Our bags got checked in, our passports looked at and confirmed – and then we were showed out itinerary. Our flight was booked for the previous day. We’d completely missed our flight. Only we’d told the booking lady that we wanted the flight for the 5th July. She gave us flights for the 4th July – which was the day we booked. She talked to us about our flight the next day, when to get to the airport, what we were doing…… I checked our names and passport details but I guess I just forgot to triple check the date that she booked our flight. We had originally wanted a flight at 7am on the 5th July. The same flight leaves every day, so she must have accidentally clicked backwards instead of forwards in days.

Anyway. We’re to blame because we didn’t check the dates. We just assumed she’d book what we’d told her and what we’d showed her on a printed document with the dates, times and flight numbers printed and highlighted on it.

So we were in a pickle. I don’t like being in a pickle.

We were pushed aside while everyone else was checked in. I called numerous people, no one seemed to care or understand. Eventually, after running around, asking people, talking to people and playing nice, we found out that we just had to wait til everyone was booked in and we might be able to fit in on the flight. But we’d have to pay for it again.

And pay we did. With an arm and a leg and an eyeball. But we got on the flight. It was a little touch and go – it was SUPER windy and the plane was getting thrown around and making funny noises. We landed and were almost blown away in the breeze.

Airport arrival – everyone was desperate to get to dad’s passport. They took BlackBerry photos of it and we were allowed to leave. We had a big group as we’d managed to pick up a stranded group of 6 people. I called the Three Camel Lodge and they had space for them so they came alone for the ride. 6 really lovely Yanks.

The Gobi is a desert. There’s something very special about deserts. They harbour life that is so fragile yet so strong and resourceful. They have colours that you’ll never find anywhere else. Purple mountains, yellow plains, red cliffs.

And the Gobi is no different. So beautiful!